Vector-borne RADAR (Real-time Arbovirus Detection And Response)

媒介携带的雷达希望通过采用One Health方法来加强对英国野生鸟类蚊媒疾病的监测，这些疾病在医学和兽医上具有更广泛的重要性。我们的第一个工作包将扩大我们成功的多学科网络的范围，该网络负责2020年在英国检测到Usutu病毒，包括对鸟类宿主和蚊子媒介进行采样的更多路线。这将遵循荷兰用来检测野生鸟类新出现的蚊媒病毒的类似和成功的范例(www.oneHealth pact.org)。基本上，我们会在被视为病毒入侵高危地区增选鸟类观测站和持牌鸣禽，以抽样候鸟(以确定病毒入侵的潜在路线)和留鸟(以阐明地理范围和病毒流行情况)。我们亦会在每个指定的禽鸟抽样地点设置捕蚊器，以提供有关病媒群落的组成、病毒流行情况和可能的传播网络的资料。我们的第二个工作包将开发一个早期预警系统，用于检测英国野生鸟类潜在的人畜共患病毒疾病。两个现有和独立的公民科学数据计划(英国鸟类学信托基金的[BTO]花园鸟类观察和花园野生动物健康[GWh]项目)将被增选，以确定与野生鸟类报告率下降相关的疾病事件报告集群，作为指示病毒传播区域和评估近实时影响的代理。我们的财团已经证明这种方法是成功的，可以追溯地确定由2020年英国Usutu病毒爆发导致的黑鸟死亡模式和报告率下降。我们的第三个工作包将与参与BTO花园鸟类观察的公民科学家合作进行。我们将进行一项调查，旨在了解英国花园中黑鸟的精细运动和栖息地使用情况。生成的数据将提供关于特定栖息地用途的详细信息，并确定与花园栖息地特征有关的潜在病毒传播风险，这些栖息地特征也可能鼓励蚊子数量增加(例如积水区域)。此外，我们将在伦敦和东南部建立黑鸟诱捕地点，在那里，有执照的环行者将致力于用雾网和彩环捕捉鸟类(这样它们就可以从远处被识别，而不需要进一步诱捕)，以便量化随着时间的推移的存活率。参与这项计划的人士亦会接受训练，以布设捕蚊器和识别蚊子，以提供证据，将媒介繁多和疾病流行与野生禽鸟的存活率直接联系起来。这项研究建议所产生的数据，将加深我们对外来蚊媒病毒如何在温带地区出现和持续存在的了解，同时亦可直接为政府的政策、人畜共患疾病的风险评估、公共卫生讯息和蚊子控制策略提供资料。通过与公民科学家、野生动物恢复者、动物收藏品以及动物福利和保护非政府组织的接触，我们还将提高对动物健康影响和对生物多样性影响的认识。

Vector-borne RADAR looks to enhance surveillance of mosquito-borne diseases of wild birds in the UK that have wider medical and veterinary importance by adopting a One Health approach. Our first work package will increase the scope of our successful, multi-disciplinary network, which was responsible for the detection of Usutu virus in the UK in 2020, to include additional routes for sampling both bird hosts and mosquito vectors. This will follow a similar and successful paradigm that has been used in the Netherlands to detect emerging mosquito borne viruses of wild birds (www.onehealthpact.org). In essence we will co-opt bird observatories and licensed ringers in areas deemed at high-risk of virus incursion to sample migrant birds (to identify potential routes of virus incursion) and resident birds (to elucidate geographic extent and virus prevalence). At each of our designated bird sampling sites we will also set up mosquito traps to provide information on vector community composition, virus prevalence and potential transmission networks. Our second work package will develop an early warning system for the detection of potential zoonotic viral diseases of wild birds in the UK. Two existing and independent citizen science data schemes (the British Trust for Ornithology's [BTO] Garden BirdWatch, and the Garden Wildlife Health [GWH] project) will be co-opted to identify clusters of disease incident reports which correlate with a reduction in wild bird reporting rates, as a proxy to indicate areas of virus circulation and assess near real-time impact. This approach has been shown to be successful, by our consortium, in retrospectively identifying patterns of Blackbird mortality and declines in reporting rates caused by the 2020 Usutu virus outbreak in the UK. Our third work package will be conducted in collaboration with citizen scientists who participate in the BTO Garden BirdWatch. We will undertake a survey aiming to understand fine-scale Blackbird movements and habitat use in UK gardens. Data generated will provide detail on specific habitat use and identify potential virus transmission risks in relation to habitat features of gardens that are also likely to encourage higher mosquito populations (e.g. areas of stagnant water). Alongside this we will establish Blackbird trapping sites in London and the south-east, where licensed ringers will aim to catch birds in mist nets and colour-ring (so they can be identified from a distance without the need for further trapping) individual Blackbirds in order to quantify survival rates through time. Ringers involved in the scheme will also be trained to deploy mosquito traps and identify mosquitoes to provide evidence to link vector abundance and disease prevalence directly to wild bird survival.The data generated from this research proposal will improve our understanding of how exotic mosquito-borne viruses emerge and persist in temperate areas while also feeding directly into government policy & risk assessments on zoonotic diseases, public health messages and mosquito control strategies. Through engagement with citizen scientists, wildlife rehabilitators, zoological collections, and animal welfare and conservation NGOs, we will also raise awareness of implications for animal health and impacts on biodiversity.